What is Digg?30 Comments
- synthaxx, on 09/29/2009, -0/+15From the wikipedia page :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_memory
"While Flash memory units become less usable the smaller they are (due to bleeding of info from weird electromagnetic interactions at very small scale), PCMs become more usable, as they require less energy to go through the "melt and refreeze" steps."
If they really start making this stuff in bulk, this could get very interesting. - CursorTN, on 09/29/2009, -2/+15Crystal memory? Am I the only person who immediately thought of the Fortress of Solitude? Crazy that we're only now beginning to master the secrets of the technology of Krypton.
- sgfreak784, on 09/29/2009, -1/+8Actually, I was thinking of isolinear memory chips and data rods from Star Trek, but I like what you're thinking, too.
- Yazilliclick, on 09/29/2009, -0/+7Everything does. If these things become popular and the next big thing then it means there will be a LOT being produced and lot being tossed in the garbage. It's important to understand what effect producing the materials for these will have as well as what effect they'll have just being tossed in the ground or whether they can be recycled.
You'd have to be a complete ***** idiot if you didn't think what we produce and what we throw out has an impact even if you don't believe all the hyped global warming/cooling/changing news. And if what you're doing is having an effect it's best to understand it before rather than after you ***** everything up. - AdmiralAcbar, on 09/29/2009, -0/+6Hang on, is this a replacement for solid state drives, or RAM... or both? If it's as quick to change as they say it is, doesn't this change the entire computing field? You could have always-on, no-power-required RAM. Instant-on with no more need for sleep mode.
- MixMastaKooz, on 09/29/2009, -0/+5I was thinking Crystal Meth....it's a hell of a memory chip...
- DifferentAngle, on 09/29/2009, -0/+5Flash has a problem where entire blocks need to be erased at a time. This technology doesnt have that problem so it will be much easier to create disks.
- kelmaster1, on 09/29/2009, -0/+5Good, then when PCM becomes mainstream SSDs will finally be a reasonable price.
- Liam30, on 09/29/2009, -0/+4This is probably a great story, but it's behind a paywall. Did any of you actually read the story, or just commenting on the post? Buried.
- Jpatano, on 09/29/2009, -0/+3it's good news that this is something that's already in production, albeit in limited capacities. hopefully the tech progresses quickly enough that by the time i need to replace my PC this form of memory will be a viable option.
- tgc1, on 09/29/2009, -0/+3This is awesome. Can't wait to see this hit market. Just hoping the price isn't as astronomical as large flash drives were when they came out negating any sort of size vs. cost advantage over conventional hard drives.
- the8thbit, on 09/29/2009, -0/+3Moore's observation is waning? Since when?
- thcobbs, on 09/29/2009, -0/+2Unless you want to add about three pages of mathematics and materials information to the page about memory, that suffices.
- fuzzynyanko, on 09/29/2009, -0/+2Flash cards are actually faster than the memory subsystem of the old 8088 PCs. They definitely can be used for RAM in small projects
- HonoredMule, on 09/29/2009, -0/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wierd
- hereticoftruth, on 09/30/2009, -0/+1Easy answer. We are approaching the monoatomic level. Nobody has a clue how to produce circuits smaller than an atom. (That is, except for science fiction writers of course.)
- askantik, on 09/29/2009, -0/+1Maybe you should flag that article on Wikipedia. "due to bleeding of info from weird..." doesn't sound much like an encyclopedia...
- MizuhoChan, on 09/29/2009, -1/+2This sounds like it could be used for a lot of things. Interesting stuff, might keep up on it.
- FattyMagee, on 09/29/2009, -1/+2I have to kind of hang my head in shame as a computer engineer when I find out about something like this only after its basically at the implementation stage.
- plizard, on 09/29/2009, -0/+1this was mentioned in 1998
- LarkStew, on 09/29/2009, -0/+1These things take time to develop. I remember reading a Scientific American article in 1996 I think, about how they created the first semiconductor blue lasers, at first they could only work for a few hours before they stopped working. They were confident they could get the reliability up and sure enough, now we have Blu Ray drives.
- fuzzynyanko, on 09/29/2009, -0/+1I wouldn't be. There's so much crap happening in technology that it's hard to keep track of every pocket of innovation.
- LarkStew, on 09/29/2009, -0/+1How many read/write cycles can PCM sustain though?
- Jmorris5ten, on 09/29/2009, -0/+1memory = ram
- vassoom, on 09/30/2009, -0/+1Buried for restricted access to article that even bugmenot.com can't overcome. Not usually a good idea to Digg an article the majority of people won't even be able to see.
- askantik, on 09/29/2009, -1/+1I know, I'm not criticizing a summary or a brief explanation, I'm just saying that the word "weird" does sound all that encyclopediatic.
- Jektal, on 09/29/2009, -2/+2So? From a software perspective traditional flash and PCM should be interchangeable without effect.
And, as TFA points out, the advantages only go to PCM when the chips are miniaturized greatly. SSDs have a good deal of physical room, relatively, so there's no immediate push for them to switch to PCM. - hereticoftruth, on 09/29/2009, -3/+3WOW! Looks like the waning of Moore's Law is pushing us in a new positive direction. But how clean is this technology? If it is not so clean, what are they doing to minimize environmental impact?
- kelmaster1, on 09/29/2009, -3/+2Are you one of those people that goes around spreading this ***** for some weird job? What does this have to do with environmental impact?
- abdullahishtiaq, on 09/29/2009, -8/+2development is toooooo fast
solid state disks have yet not settled in the market!!!!!
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